The Top 25 Movies of the Decade, Part 2

Before we get into the top ten, I figured I’d run through a list of some of the films that almost made it into the top twenty-five.

When compiling the list, I first looked through the yearly top tens I had made — not many, since I only started doing it in 2006. Then I looked through all the reviews I’d written dating back to 2003. Then I racked my brain and perused BoxOfficeMojo.com, RogerEbert.com, RottenTomatoes.com, and of course IMDb.com to fill out a good list of contenders. Afterward, I reasoned, movies I still hadn’t thought of wouldn’t deserve to be on the list anyway.

I whittled the list of films I had earmarked (fifty plus) down to thirty-nine. But that’s when I hit the roadblock. What makes the thirty-fourth best film of the decade better than the twenty-fifth? Ultimately, not a lot — which is why I’m including them as honorable mentions: Across the Universe, Brokeback Mountain, The Bubble, Eastern Promises, Elephant, A History of Violence, In Bruges, Minority Report, Mulholland Dr., Superbad, Traffic, 25th Hour, Walk the Line, and The Wrestler.

But enough of that. What’s my top ten?

10. Match Point (2005)

Talk about disciplined filmmaking. Woody Allen’s best film since I’ve known who Woody Allen is has a specific and simple theme in mind and executes it perfectly. The story — about a social climber played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers who eventually finds himself doing a very bad thing — leads from light comedy to romance to thriller, culminating in one of the most grotesquely satisfying twist endings ever. (Allen is also one of the few screenwriters who lets his charactershave real conversations, too, which makes the entire movie strangely relaxing.)

Times watched: 1

9. The Departed (2006)

This was the most fun experience I’ve ever had at a movie theater. I went to see it with a couple of my closest college buddies on opening weekend in New York City, and the theater was packed. Everybody was into it — gasps, cheers, and more than one oh-no-he-didn’t arose from the crowd throughout. The best, though, was saved for the very end of the movie, when [cough] shows up and kills [cough] — at which point the entire crowd burst into spontaneous applause. That’s the power of movies. (And yes, I saw it again on DVD, and it was exactly as viscerally fantastic as I remembered.)

Times watched: 3

8. Sunshine (2007)

The movie Danny Boyle made directly before he won the Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire was a hard-sci-fi story that was buried when it was released in the U.S. It should get a cult following, but too many sci-fi fans seem to have dismissed it because of an ending that doesn’t live up to the first three-quarters of the movie. My argument: okay, the ending isn’t as good (it’s good, just a little more perfunctory), and it still is one of my ten favorite movies of the decade. In a story about a group of scientists sent on a mission to reignite the dying sun — something they all have doubts will work — it pulls you into their journey and contains keen character development, a lot of really fascinating ideas, and some of the most suspenseful scenes ever. Remember the scene in 2001 in which Dave shoots himself through the airlock? You’ve got to see Sunshine‘s version.

Times watched: 2

7. Juno (2007)

One of those movies that, halfway through watching it, you just sit back and think: man, I’m really enjoying this. The movie already went through the initial everyone-loved-it phase as well as the it’s-so-overrated-and-the-dialogue-is-annoying backlash, and is now settling into the long yeah-that-Juno-was-really-enjoyable period. So what is Juno, really? It’s a surprisingly devious story that exposes the audience’s own biases. When you meet the married couple played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, you peg them immediately: he’s cool, she’s a type-A bitch. It doesn’t work out like that. Juno ultimately is a teen movie that serves as a welcome antidote to every horny-guy movie ever and reveals what half the human race knew all along: girls are way more mature than boys — and boys need to catch up.

Times watched: 3

6. City of God (2002)

A really stunning movie about something stunningly real. In the slums of Rio de Janeiro, violent teen gangs — and violent pre-teen gangs — wage fatal wars with each other while they should be learning how to grow up. Loosely based on real gang wars, it plunges us into an unfamiliar world and dares us to watch. It’s utterly terrifying, but through the eyes of an innocent teenager who dreams of being a photographer (and getting laid), it’s also often funny and always exhilarating.

Times watched: 2

5. X2: X-Men United (2003)

Mismatched people, bonded together for a worthy cause. That’s one of my favorite storytelling conceits, it’s what has made the X-Men brand popular for almost fifty years, and it’s what Bryan Singer captured perfectly in the second big-screen X-Men movie. The whip-smart script juggled a dozen major characters, told a coherent and exciting story, and still managed to make the mutant/human struggle a metaphor for homophobia and race relations. The best comic book movie of all time.

Times watched: 6

4. Zodiac (2007)

This is the perfect example of a movie that grows in stature long after you watch it. When I first heard about it, it was just another serial killer movie. Then I caught it in theaters and liked it — but afterward it would just not get out of my head. By the end of the year it was on my top ten list, and now here I am sticking it at #4. Something about the movie — a chronicle of the Zodiac killer’s murders in the late sixties and the men who were obsessed with solving the case in the years and decades afterward — spoke deeply to our obsession for answers and the universe’s indifference. And the choice of Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” to play at the end of the movie has got to be one of the best soundtrack decisions ever made.

Times watched: 1

3. Into the Wild (2007)

This movie seared itself into my consciousness and wouldn’t go away. I now own the special edition DVD and have devoured the original nonfiction book by Jon Krakauer more than once. To say that Christopher McCandless — who disappeared after graduating from college in 1990 and was found dead in Alaska in 1992 — was naive or selfish is to ignore that we’re all naive or selfish at some point in our lives when we’re young. What’s undeniable is that McCandless, while tramping his way across the country, discovered himself and touched a lot of people along the way. Sean Penn’s film is a heartfelt meditation on both wanderlust and “America,” the myth and reality. (Yeah, Sean Penn. Go figure.)

Times watched: 2

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

When I was a kid, getting into the Star Wars movies for the first time, I remember wishing I’d been alive when the first movie had been released — to experience the phenomenon directly, to wait in line with fellow fans and see it in theaters for the first time. Lucky for me, I was sixteen when the first Lord of the Rings movie came out. It was the epic of our time, the 100% successful gamble that was beautiful, exciting, wondrous, fantastic, and — I’m not trying to be hyperbolic, honestly. I’ve wavered quite a bit on what my favorite of the trilogy is, and for a while I thought it was Return of the King. But The Fellowship of the Ring established the world, offered the classic quest narrative, and ultimately ended on a beautifully-written note of wistfulness for friends, family, and the other things left behind. (I think I’ve only watched the actual movie something like five times, but combine the other two movies with the hours of DVD features, and I’ve spent an alarming amount of time on this trilogy.)

Times watched: 5

1. Almost Famous (2000)

Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical tale of a teenager who leaves home to tour with a struggling rock band on assignment from Rolling Stone magazine is a masterpiece: a really fantastic story, filled with iconic characters, and as epically quotable as any comedy (“And let me say what nobody else wants to say — your looks have become a problem!”). It might be the most satisfying movie I’ve ever seen, and it’s definitely the best coming-of-age movie I’ve ever seen. (The soundtrack’s not too bad either.) In short, it’s perfect.

Times watched: 7+

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5 Comments, 2 Trackbacks

Not a bad list. I don’t agree with many selections on your list, but I realize that it’s impossible to make a list like this that everyone will agree with.

I think the biggest beef I have with your list is putting X-Men 2 over City of God. City of God is probably my 2nd favorite movie of the decade (behind Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and X-Men 2 just seemed like another above-average superhero movie to me. I liked The Dark Knight more.